Margaret (Daisy) Sinclair, 1941-2020

Margaret (Daisy) Sinclair died peacefully in New York City on October 18, 2020 after a short illness. Daisy was born on March 22, 1941 in Perth Amboy, NJ, the daughter of James P. Nieland and Margaret McAniff Nieland of Perth Amboy and New Smyrna Beach, FL. She graduated from St. Mary's School and in 1962 from Caldwell College and immediately embarked on a career in advertising in New York City. She was a copywriter at Young & Rubicam and then joined Ogilvy & Mather in 1964 where she became a Senior Vice President and was for decades the head of the casting department before retiring in 2010. She was awarded the Jules Fine Award as the outstanding member of the agency. In her later decades at Ogilvy, she was universally considered the dean of casting directors in the advertising industry and is listed in Marquis Who's Who in America. Among her favorite advertising campaigns were the American Express "Do you know me?" campaign and Annie Leibovitz's photographs for American Express with such celebrities as Wilt Chamberlain and Willie Shoemaker standing together. She especially enjoyed working with Luciano Pavarotti and Jerry Seinfeld and it was Jerry Seinfeld who presented her the Jules Fine Award. Daisy's charitable activities included The Rehearsal Club, a house on West 53rd Street where aspiring young actresses lived, which was the basis of the Katherine Hepburn/Ginger Rogers movie "Stage Door". She served as a member of the board and taught acting lessons to the young ladies to help them get roles in advertisements until the club's closing in 1979. For many decades thereafter she served as Vice President and board member of The Drama League and was a nominator for the Drama League Awards for Broadway and Off-Broadway plays. At the height of the AIDS epidemic as it ravaged the acting community, she would deliver meals to the needy and homebound for God's Love We Deliver during her lunch breaks at Ogilvy. She was also a board member and President of the Knickerbocker Greys, a junior cadet organization which her sons joined. After retiring from Ogilvy, Daisy was a volunteer palliative care aide at Mt. Sinai Hospital. Daisy's family was a joy in her life. She married James Sinclair in 1978 and has two devoted sons, Duncan and Gibbons (Crick). In their school years, she is best remembered for being the most spectacularly dressed parent at their hockey games. She will be remembered for her quick wit, charm, great sense of humor and warmth and great style. Daisy is survived by her husband James and two sons Duncan and Gibbons, their respective spouses Anne and Amanda, grandson Jackson, sister Mary Ann and her spouse Gary, sister Jane, brother James and his spouse Ursula, nieces Jessica, Samantha and Mariah Jane, nephews C.J. and Casey, stepsons James and Ian, their respective spouses Sherry and Stephanie, and grand stepsons Clay and Parker.